BEREA -- A piano instructor might order his pupil to practice, practice and practice one song some more so when it is time for the recital the student overwhelms the audience.

It does not work that way during an NFL practice, at least not in Berea, according to Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden.

Weeden defended his sometime-erratic passing in Dallas last week with what on the surface is a shocking explanation. He has made references to the same issue before.

"There are a couple of routes we ran on Sunday for the first time all week and that's not fair to me, it's not fair to the receivers, it's not fair to any of us, because you're getting thrown in the fire and the bullets are flying," Weeden said.

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Weeden did not specify which passes he referred to. The rookie from Oklahoma State completed 20 of 35 passes against the Cowboys for 210 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. His 57.1 completion percentage last week is slightly higher than his overall rate of 55.3 percent (205 of 371) which ranks 31st in the NFL.

Coach Pat Shurmur disputed Weeden inferring he and the receivers were instructed to run plays they didn't practice. As Shurmur spoke to reporters Friday, Weeden and his receivers stayed on the field after practice to work on their timing. But it was not at the same frenetic pace of a game.

"I disagree with some of that because I do think that we make an effort to practice the ones we're going to call," Shurmur said. "A lot of the plays that we practice, we've been running all year and you run them in training camp. It's nearly impossible with the amount of time and then the length of the season to practice every single thing multiple times."

Wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi weighed in on the debate. Massaquoi caught nine passes over his first three games, missed five with a hamstring injury and has one catch over his last two games.

"Sometimes you get different looks in a game," Massaquoi said. "When Brandon's going through his progressions that's just how things shake out. The guy we thought would be open isn't open.

"Sometimes you might not be sure if you're going to run a play in a game and then you see a look that presents itself. And so you really didn't put emphasis on it in practice but it's available for the game so you run it. If they present the look you drew up everybody would have a high completion percentage, but that's not the way it works. They're scheming to stop us also."

Weeden said practice repetition is limited because the coaches want the receivers to have fresh legs on game day. Teams playing on Sunday generally practice hard on Wednesday and Thursday and begin to lighten the work on Friday with a walkthrough on Saturday.

"These guys can't run forever," Weeden said. "You want to make sure they're fresh throughout the week. I throw a comeback to Josh (Gordon in individual drills). When we get in team period I probably won't throw it to him. I'll probably make him my backside read just so I could throw other routes to other guys.

"You try to spread them out. You know what you've thrown. You just try to be conscious about it because most plays we run only once a practice. That means you're throwing to one receiver. That means two or three receivers aren't getting a touch. They're not getting a catch. They're not getting the ball thrown their way. That's tough on them.

"We can't be out there for three hours. You can't run every single route and every single throw. That's why I try to do it after practice, walkthrough, or whatever. You look at guys like Peyton Manning, That's what he does. Those guys are on point because he takes pride in being on time with all of his guys."

This is Manning's first year in Denver, but he's been at it since 1998. Manning has thrown 372 passes this season -- one more than Weeden -- and he has completed 50 more of them for a completion percentage of 68.5 percent. But Manning's rookie numbers were a lot closer to those of Weeden the rookie. In 1998 Manning completed 326 of 575 passes (56.7 percent) for 3,739 yards, 26 touchdowns and league-most 28 interceptions.

Rule needs changing

This is my turn to weigh in on the flawed rule that allowed the Texans to score a touchdown they did not earn Thursday. In the third quarter, Justin Forsett ran 81 yards for a touchdown, most of it after being tackled. For some reason no officials noticed his knee, forearm and elbow hit the turf in Ford Field.

Forsett popped up and started running because no official blew a whistle. Since no official blew a whistle, Lions coach Jim Schwartz threw his challenge flag.

All scoring plays are reviewed unless a coach throws a challenge flag. That's the rule and every coach knows it. Not only does the challenge flag negate the review, it also costs the team a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the kickoff.

Schwartz knew he was wrong, but in my opinion it is a silly rule. Penalize the Lions 15 yards on the kickoff, but review the touchdown anyway.

"I'd be the last one to be critical of another coach," Shurmur said. "We do know that when there is a scoring play or there is a turnover, it automatically gets challenged. I'm not going to be critical of (the rule).

"Let's take the heat of the moment out of it. It made the rules a little bit easier by saying that every time it's a scoring play it's reviewed. Quite frankly, that's how I view it, because it takes it out of my hands once they've decided it's a touchdown."

A league source said coaches are routinely reminded of the consequences of challenging a play that would be automatically reviewed.